Milt Stegall to be inducted to the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame

Milt Stegall will be added to another shrine next month, meaning he might need to expand the section in his Atlanta home that showcases all his honours and awards – most of them coming in Winnipeg Blue Bombers colours.

Stegall will be formally added to the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame on November 2^nd, joining a class of inductees that includes long distance runner Chris Glowach, swimmer Kelly Stefanyshyn, the 1965 Terry Braunstein rink that won the Brier and Brett Bottomley (skiing) and Alex Gardiner (athletics) in the builder category.

Yet, make no mistake – this never gets old for one of the most popular Blue Bombers in franchise history and the Canadian Football League’s all-time touchdown leader.

“I would have had no clue going back to September of 1995 that my life would change so much with me signing with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers,” said Stegall in a zoom call with media Monday morning. “This honour right here is just outstanding. I told some of my friends and they were like, ‘C’mon, man… how are you getting inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame… you were born in Cincinnati, Ohio, you live in Atlanta, Georgia.’

“It’s just so overwhelming to actually have this honour bestowed upon me. It means a lot to me. I don’t take any of this for granted. The city of Winnipeg, the province of Manitoba not only changed my football career but changed my life and my family’s life for the better. I’m so excited, I’m looking forward to it and I’m very thankful for it.”

A member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and the Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Fame, Stegall was also inducted into the Blue Bombers Ring of Honour in 2016.

He spoke Monday of his arrival in Winnipeg in September of 1995 and how all these years later this town and this province made such an impact on his life.

“I won’t lie – it was tough when I first got there,” he said with a grin. “I had no idea about the CFL. I had been to Toronto and Montreal, so I thought everywhere in Canada – being an uneducated American – I thought everywhere was like Toronto and Montreal. And then I get to Winnipeg and I’m like, ‘What is going on? It’s all flat. There’s no expressways, there’s no traffic. What is going on?’

“Right when I get off the plane, I’m thinking I’m going to go take a physical and I get a couple of days. I get off the plane and (Blue Bombers equipment manager) Brad Fotty gives me a uniform and I’m practising on the turf; Cal Murphy (then the Blue Bombers GM and head coach) is screaming at me because I have on a long-sleeve shirt ‘You don’t need that long shirt on! It’s not cold enough!’ I’m like, ‘Hold on, what have I gotten myself into here?’

“But as the weeks went on, as the years went on it was the best decision I ever made. Besides marrying my wife and my wife having my two beautiful sons, me signing with Winnipeg in September of 1995 is the best decision I ever made – not just for my football life, but for my life in general. It changed me. It changed everything I am, everything I have for the better every single day and it’s still impacting me to this day, and I’ve been retired for almost 16 years.”

Stegall’s talent was obvious, and his name is all over the CFL and Blue Bombers record books. He not only set the CFL record for TDs (147), but holds the league mark with 23 touchdowns in one season, set in 2002. His club records for TDs, receiving yards (15,153), receptions (854) and 1,000-yard receiving seasons (10) are seemingly untouchable.

What separated him from everyone, though, was his work ethic – traits passed down to him by his mother, Betty, who was a nurse at the Shriners hospital in Cincinnati and especially from his father, Garland, who worked as a foreman at chemical plant and then helped manage the grocery store his family ran before he passed away when Stegall was a senior in high school.

“A lot of people ask, ‘Where did you get your mindset, your work ethic, the way you approach things from?’” he said. “That’s all from my father. My father came from nothing. I thought we were rich when I was younger; I didn’t realize we were struggling because my father provided for me and my four siblings and my mother with everything and it’s because he literally worked himself to death.”

“Seeing himself work himself to death with nothing and providing with everything I had made me realize that if I’m not successful in everything I do something is wrong because he was able to do it with nothing. So, there’s no reason for me not to go out there and give it my all with everything I have. I owe everything to what my father instilled in me, embedded in me, and that wasn’t just what I saw him do for the 18 years he was here for my life.”

An CFL on TSN analyst who still regularly visits Winnipeg for charitable appearances, Stegall also offered a prediction as the 2023 Blue Bombers enter the stretch drive toward the playoffs.

“They better win it because I predicted they were going to before the year,” he said with a chuckle. “I said they were old, and I said after this year they were going to make some changes, but I think they’ll find a way to win. I think they’ll avenge their defeat last year to the Toronto Argonauts and pull out an overtime this year. It’s going to be a tough task because the Argonauts are tough. They have Chad Kelly, that defence is excellent, maybe the best in the league right now, but I think those Winnipeg Blue Bombers with their veteran presence and their great head coach will find a way to tweak it out. But they have to be hitting on all cylinders.

“They still have to win a game to make sure they do win the West but I think they’ll do that and I think they’ll win the West.”